League of Legends NA LCS Decisive Day One

Day one for League of Legends in North America was a bit more decisive than LCK and EU, where many of the best of 3 matches have gone the full duration. Cloud9 was able to secure a win against Team SoloMid, in a rematch of the Summer Finals 2016. Phoenix1 also defeated Echo Fox in two back and forth scrappers.

League of Legends NA LCS Day One

It was a decisive start to the North American League Championship Series, with both victors taking their match in just two games. None of them, however, were a blowout, and seemed like it could go any way at any time.

Cloud9’s new jungler Contractz came strong, scoring the first blood of both matches. In game one, he took out WildTurtle, Team SoloMid’s stand in for Doublelift, who is resting this spring. Analysts have frequently labeled WildTurtle a “downgrade” from Doublelift, who is often considered one of the top AD carries in North America. It’s not a good start, giving up the first blood of the entire year, or later, in game two, when WildTurtle seemingly had a misclick on his auto attack that allowed C9’s Smoothie to escape with his life.

WildTurtle, with a banana, via WWG

In game two, Contractz started off on an impressive 4-0 streak, before anybody else on either team made it onto the scoreboard. Despite Barons and Drakes a plenty for Team SoloMid, Cloud9 was consistently able to come out on top in team fights, and managed to push that advantage all the way to TSM’s Nexus in both games.

Phoenix1 also scrapped their way to victory, often finding themselves in a comeback position. Game one opened with a tough double gank on mid-laner Ryu by jungler Akaadian. And even though gold lead kept swinging back and forth in games one and two, Phoenix1 never lost heart and was also able to use team fighting to their advantage and secure the victory 2-0.

Four more League of Legends matches are in store for North America today, featuring Counter Logic Gaming against Team Liquid, Team EnVyUs against FlyQuest, Echo Fox against Immortals, and Team Dignitas against Phoenix1.